It's a fairly negative piece which seems to imply that Rutan and the other X-prize contenders are mere dilettants. The most awful thing was a quote they got from Roger Launius of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC concerning the SS1 flight of June 21.

Nature, vol 429, pg 792 citing Roger Launius wrote:

"It is insignificant in the overall scheme of space flight"

Which, coming from a so-called space-history expert, sounds difficult to credit. I guess he's not a "space-present" expert. No reasoning accompanies this contemptible and instantly discarded "sound-bite".

It makes me wonder if Nature hasn't somehow taken him out of context.

In any case ... HERE is an example of how the public is encouraged to perceive privatized space travel.

Four years later, we have Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth in orbit, and a private suborbital rocket putting Mike Melvill in space. And John Pike and his fellow critics are still around, saying that space tourism won't work.